Alpha Neon Super 4 - Strawberry Cotton Candy 🍓🍬
For all non-British readers, did you know that Brits have a tradition of eating strawberries & cream at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships?
The tradition was adopted early in Wimbledon’s history, presumably as a response to how fashionable strawberries were in 19th-century London. Legend has it that (before the age of refrigeration / Amazon Prime), strawberries were only available for a few weeks a year - weeks which happened to coincide with Wimbledon. Eating strawberries at a tennis tournament attended by the city’s upper class therefore became a way of flexing on the general public.
With Wimbledon having come and gone, it seems appropriate to review a strawberry flavoured protein from an exciting British supplement brand.
Tenuous connect, I know….but it’s hard coming up with catchy intros! 😂
The Product Summary
📋 Product: Alpha Neon Super 4™
🥛 Type: Protein Blend
👄 Flavour: Strawberry Candy Floss
💰 Price: £49.99
⚖️ Weight: 2kgs
🥄 Servings: 57 Servings
The TLDR
Extremely tasty, super transparent any-time product with protein from a variety of good sources. This is now my go-to strawberry flavour - it’s that good!
The Macros
🔥 125 Calories
💪 29g Protein
🍬 1g Carbs (1g sugar)
🛢️ 1g Fat (0.3g saturated)
The Brand
Alpha Neon logo - featuring a bull dog
Alpha Neon is a relatively new brand based in the UK, and they carry a range of good, no-nonsense supplements. Alpha Neon obviously does protein (with a lot of different flavours), but also offers glucose disposal agents, intra workouts, sleeps aids, and pre-workouts. I’ve not tried it yet, but I have heard really good things about their pre-workouts. In addition to supplements, Alpha Neon also sells a lot of lifting accessories and clothing.
Interestingly, Alpha Neon’s website has a K9 (as in, canine / dogs) section, which sells a weightlifting belt style dog collar. Honestly, I can’t think of anything more manly than walking around with a hench bulldog wearing a lifting belt. The other K9 product is a really interesting joint support supplement for dogs - which sounds way healthier than a puppuccino from Starbucks (for real, this is a thing).
While their website doesn’t have an “about us” page, Adrian (owner) is absolute class and is always on hand to answer Qs. Speaking of Adrian, he’s probably too modest to say this, but he’s been working in sports nutrition for nearly 2 decades now, and has a wealth of knowledge on supplements. He tells me Alpha Neon was set up to produce the best supplements, and from what I can see, all of their supplements are very well dosed.
The Formula
You know how people tell you “size doesn’t matter”? Well, when it comes to protein incredients, size most certainly does matter, and in this case, the smaller the better 🙃 In this respect, Alpha Neon Super 4 certainly doesn’t dissapoint. It’s always reassuring to see that a protein powder contains mostly protein, and a quick skim of the ingredients list will tell you that this is clearly a protein blend, with no fillers
The blend here comprises - in descending order of weight - equal amounts of Whey Protein Isolate and Milk Protein Isolate, followed by Whey Protein Concentrate and then Micellar Casein. Here’s a quick summary of all of these types of protein:
Whey Isolate: As most people know, this is amongst the purest and fastest digesting protein sources, which makes it ideal post workout,
Milk Protein Isolate: Is similarly a very pure protein source, which is actually a blend of both whey and casein, meaning it provides both fast and slower digesting proteins
Whey Concentrate: Akin to an isolate, but has been filtered less and therefore less “pure” - still an excellent source of fast digesting muscle fuel, and finally,
Micellar Casein: This is the purest form of Casein, so another very good source slow-digesting, complete protein
It’s clear that this was designed to be an “all rounder” which gives you a good mix of protein sources, which is a very good option for regular gym rats. In fact, there are some studies which suggest mixing whey (fast digesting) with slow releasing proteins has the effect of elevating muscle protein synthesis for a longer period of time - in other words, more gainz. Speaking of more gainz, a scoop of this offers a whopping 29g of protein, which is about 15 - 20% more than your average scoop of whey, so something to bear in mind if you’re tracking your macros.
What I really like though, is that the label is fully transparent, meaning you know exactly how much of each protein you’re getting - see for yourself below. I’ve only really seen this on Ghost - and I think the inclusion of this transparency label really shows the commitment of Alpha Neon trying to deliver good supplements
Really helpful full disclosure label, which tells you exactly what you’re getting
The rest of the ingredients are fairly standard - a little flavouring, thickening agent, and some colour / sweeteners.
Full ingredients list below:
Whey Protein Isolate, Milk Protein Isolate, Whey Protein Concentrate, Micellar Casein Protein, Flavouring, Thickening Agent (Xanthan Gum) Beetroot Red, Sweetener (Sucralose).
The Mixability
Before I give my verdict, it’s important to bear in mind that a milk / whey blend will never mix as well as a traditional whey protein. The nerdy explanation is that milk and casein proteins contain a large amount of non‐polar amino acids, which makes them highly hydrophobic - meaning they repel water.
In other (non-nerdy) words, milk proteins tend to form “clumps” when mixed with liquids, which obviously makes them harder to break down or mix. Incidentally, this is why casein is a good protein to consume before bed - it literally clumps into a ball in your stomach, so it takes your body a much longer time to digest (vs. whey) and provides you with a steady supply of protein over time.
This is really the only “fault” I could find with this product - it just doesn’t mix as well as normal whey. I’d say the mixability is about the same as PES’ Select Protein (review here), which is understandable given how both products contain a fair amount of milk / casein. This isn’t as “gritty”, but it does feel a little bit more sticky and thick. I’d say overall that the texture isn’t bad, but you’ll definitely notice it’s different if you’re usually a whey drinker.
The Taste
Basically, this…!
Before we talk about taste - we need to clarify some terminology… I’m sure that North American readers will know what cotton candy is, but for those of us living across the pond, “cotton candy” is the correct term to use.
As I’m sure you’ve noticed, a lot of brands amp up the description of their product flavours, and for good reason - why drink some boring ol’ vanilla protein when you can have some Gourmet Tahitian Vanilla Pudding™?! Fortunately, Alpha Neon have done a really good job with the flavour, and the Super 4 protein is absolutely dreamy. Knowing and expecting the pink liquid to taste like candy floss, taking my first sip really did remind me of the sweet and fun treat (minus the sticky fingers!)
Mixing this with just water produced a lovely strawberry flavour that isn’t too sweet, and importantly without any of the chemical aftertaste you sometimes get with lower quality proteins. I did find this to be on the thicker side of things, so I’d recommend more liquid than usual. With milk, this is very reminiscent of a creamy glass of strawberry milk.
The Flavour Longevity
Look, strawberry is probably amongst the most popular and gentle flavours of protein you can get. I usually always have some kind of strawberry (or Chocolate / Vanilla) flavour tein on hand. I find that fruity flavours like strawberry work quite well in the summer or after a particularly sweaty session.
As this doesn’t have any chemical or unpleasant after taste, I reckon you could quite easily have the strawberry every day without ever getting sick of it.
The Versatility
I’ve been incorporating this into my usual breakfast shake / creations, as well as post workout with just water, and the strawberry flavour works extremely well in both. For breakfast, I’d usually have some combination of protein, water / milk, oats, honey, nut butter, and some ice. Given this is strawberry flavoured though, I’d suggest omitting the nut better. Honestly just whack this into a blender with some of your usual breakfast foods, and you won’t be disappointed.
I have also tried mixing with water and using as a milk substitute with cereal, but that not as good. To be honest, even whey doesn’t have the same consistency as milk, and seeing as this is thicker than normal whey, the resulting texture just didn’t really do it for me. Still though, very solid and versatile product overall.
The Pricing
At the time of writing, this retails for £49.99 Alpha Neon’s website, which means this is less than £1 per serving (my usual benchmark for relative value). However, it’s worth noting that each serving of Super 4 nets you about 29g of protein, which is 4 - 5 grams / helluva lot more than most products out there.
For comparison, a 2.2kg tub of Optimum Nutrition Whey has 73 servings with 24g of protein each serving. This might seem like a better deal, but once you account for the fact that Alpha Neon’s protein come in 2kg tubs, and adjusting the formula accordingly, you’ll find that pound for pound, Super 4 actually offers more protein - about 4% more to be exact (trust me, I did the maths).
So all in all, not the cheapest option, but definitely worth it given the flavour and nutritional profile.
As usual, I didn’t pay retail for this and got mine from Protein Bargain Wholesale (if you check them out, say hi to my boy Kayne 😎). However, I would be more than happy to pay full retail for this.
The Verdict
The verdict is, go and buy it, you won’t regret it.
I’m defo going to try some of their other amazing-sounding flavours, just need to decide between neapolitan, choc peanut butter, carrot cake, and cheesecake…